wealth is given to one who has no sympathy with it, and
gives only in return coldness and hate; who betrays every confidence
and disappoints every hope; who is only happy when he is miserable, and
refuses the generous aid a wife owes to his exertions; who rejoices in
his failures, and intrigues to produce them, and weeps over his
successes with the bitterness of disappointment; who hates her
offspring, because they resemble their father; who spurns his caresses,
and turns away from his love--then life's hopes are blighted, and all
is black before. His energies die out with his hopes; the goading
thought is eternally present; he shrinks away from society, and in
solitude and obscurity hides him from the world--which too often
condemns him as the architect of all his misery.

"Oh, a true woman is a treasure beyond price, but a false one the
basest of counterfeits."

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE SILVER-TONGUED ORATOR.

JOHN A. QUITMAN--ROBERT J. WALKER--ROBERT H. ADAMS--FROM A COOPER-SHOP
TO THE UNITED STATES SENATE--BANK MONOPOLY--NATCHEZ FENCIBLES--SCOTT IN
MEXICO--THOMAS HALL--SARGENT S. PRENTISS--VICKSBURG--SINGLE-SPEECH
HAMILTON--GOD-INSPIRED ORATORY--DRUNK BY ABSORPTION--KILLING A
TAILOR--DEFENCE OF WILKINSON.

John A. Quitman came to Mississippi in early life. He was a native of
the State of New York; had, at first, selected a location in Ohio, but,
not being pleased, he determined on coming South, and selected Natchez
for his future home. His father was a Prussian; a minister of the
German Lutheran Church, and a very learned man. He had preached in
seven kingdoms, and in every one in the language of the country. He
came to the State of New York when young, and was the bearer of the
recognition of the independence of the United States by Frederick the
Great, of Prussia. He settled in one of the interior counties of New
York, where was born and reared his distinguished son.

When young Quitman came to Natchez, he found the Bar a strong one; but
determined to follow the profession of law, and after a short time
spent in the office of William B. Griffith, he was admitted to the Bar,
and opened an office. Regardless of the overwhelming competition, his
open, frank manners soon made him friends, and the stern honesty of his
character won the confidence of every one. In a short time, he married
the only daughter of Henry Turner, a wealthy planter, and was received
into copartnership by William B. Griffith, a lawyer o